Vice President rues hasty passage of bills

AMARAVATI (AP), Dec 31: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today rued shoddy drafting of some bills and said that legislatures often enact laws without much debate.

Talking to reporters at the office of Swarna Bharat Trust run by his family near Gannavaram, Naidu said the drafting of bills leaves much to be desired sometimes.

“Yes, it’s a matter of concern. Some bills are drafted shoddily and placed before the House. There is not much debate these days on bills,” he said, when asked by a reporter about views expressed by a Supreme Court judge on the issue recently.

Speaking on the anti-defection law, the Rajya Sabha Chairman said the decision on disqualification of defectors has to be taken within two months as per the statute.

“Recently I disposed off a petition in 15 days,” Naidu said, referring to the disqualification of Sharad Yadav from the Rajya Sabha on a petition filed by the JD (U).

“I can’t comment on how the law is being followed in states,” he said, in reference to several disqualification petitions pending for over two years before Speakers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Assemblies against the opposition MLAs, who defected to the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) or Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

The Vice President also spoke about the live telecast of Parliament proceedings, saying it was “introduced to enable people see how the Parliamentary proceedings are conducted”.

“But these days there is a lot of din with some members trying to catch the camera’s eye. There are some who favour live telecast so that errant members could be exposed,” he said.

“There are (other) ways in which the parties can express their protest, like staging a walk-out. But I will not comment on the decision of political parties (as to how to protest),” he sadi.

To another question, Naidu said he never aspired to become the Vice President.

“I didn’t even wish to become the Vice President. All I wished was to retire in January 2020,” he said. (PTI)